Steven Tyler recently announced that Aerosmith bandmate Joey Kramer broke his foot, and Tyler let Kramer participate in a recent show in Oxon Hill, Maryland as a singer on “Same Old Song And Dance.” Tyler even went backstage to let Kramer be part of the show, despite being unable to drum.
VooDooMedicineMan posted on the Aeroforce forums about a show a couple of days ago, “I just got back from the concert and the band is still as impressive as ever. I tried to avoid Youtube videos and set lists leading up to the show this time around. Not that I was expecting to be surprised, and I did read a few from time to time, but I figured that would make the show seem a little fresher.
Hearing Hangman Jury live was on my bucket list, and I kind of expected to hear it. But reading setlists show after show year after year can make songs that I haven’t seen much seem like the same old same old. So Hangman was a big treat, then Eat the Rich, Same Old Song and Dance, Toys, Seasons and Last Child are all good rotational songs that are out more than they are in.
Joey was still out. Steven said he broke his ankle kicking his ass in rehearsals. I think Steven made another joke referencing the Simpsons appearance referring to the ‘Sprinfield’ crowd as ‘St Louis’, but I didn’t hear it clearly.
It’s been a little over 6 years since I last saw them and I had some fears that this would be the time their age really caught up to them. Luckily they didn’t seem any worse for wear. The music was tight and loud and they move around as well as should be expected of people half their age.
My only slight complaint would be they stuck to the album versions more than usual. Steven still snuck in the substitute lyrics quite a bit, but they didn’t really have any extended jams or snippets of other songs. Not really anything before Dream On or added to Sweet Emotion. They did play a few verses of Whole Lotta Love during the outro to Walk This Way, but that was the exception.
The video back-drop was a nice addition. Livin’ on the Edge had a full video playing in the background, different from the music video. Seasons and Hangman both had cool background settings and Toys had a nice little CGI snippet at the beginning. The intro video was so-so. They listed the start time as 8:00, then dim the lights at 8, and the screen displays ‘Show starts in 32:00’ and it begins counting down and shows the video.
The sound quality was really good. The volume was the lowest I’ve ever seen at an indoor Aerosmith show, but my ears were ringing for 3 days after the 2013 Foxwoods show and everyone sounded like Minnie Mouse 3 songs in even with protection, so no complaints here. I could hear it clearly tonight.
Bottom line is it was a great concert for any rock band at any age, and even more impressive when you consider how long they’ve been doing this. Sure they have to make some adjustments and can’t do everything they could 30 years ago, but they do a remarkable job with those adjustments. Hopefully they’ll be back again soon.” Jimmy Page made a gross Steven Tyler revelation yesterday.
